CSGO Weapons Skins With the recent ESL Pro League Finals taking place at the O2 and the Esports
Championship Series to conclude in the SSE Arena Wembley later this month, it’s
clear that UK Counter-Strike is on the rise. At the ESL Finals, two of the UK’s
most recognisable CS casters, Henry ‘HenryG’ Greer and Lauren ‘Pansy’ Scott,
shared their thoughts on watching their home scene develop.

Television vs. streaming

Though the UK scene is only just finding its feet in comparison to the
mainland majors of Cologne and Katowice, this wasn’t always the case. In the
days of Global Offensive’s predecessor, Source, the UK was up there with the
best, fielding mighty teams like London Mint, Birmingham Salvo and 4Kings. While
most tournaments at the time were smaller grassroots events, the Championship
Gaming Series of 2007 hoped to up the ante with a bigger, more professional
environment, acting as part of a push to have CS shown on national television.
As a player for London Mint, Henry was directly involved in the first real
drive, and subsequent failure, of mainstream esports in Britain.

“They put hundred and hundreds of thousands of pounds into it and obviously
we weren’t ready for it at that point,” says HenryG. “This was when I was
playing, we got flown over to America and we got to play in these amazing
leagues. We played two seasons and it turned out no one really watched it in the
UK, and this was prime time TV... It was very clear that esports wasn’t quite
ready for the UK market then.”

While television may have seemed like the logical end goal ten years ago, the
advent of streaming services such as Twitch has completely revolutionised
esports media, freeing providers from the constraints of standard broadcasting
services. Beyond the tournaments themselves, many players run successful (and
lucrative) personal streaming services. For the dedicated, this offers the
chance to directly connect with and support their favourite players.

“Originally back in the day, if you wanted to get to know these players it
was through frag movies where you’d watch one clip and be like “that person is
awesome”,” Lauren says. “I think it’s so great that you can be so personable
with the players now. You can go to their Twitch chat, you can go and talk to
them. Back when I started playing I thought “well, I’ll probably never get to
speak to this player”. Now I can go and subscribe to them and they’ll probably
be quite thankful and humble.”

“[Ten years ago] you had to have the game installed and connect through that
to watch,” says Henry. “Getting 5000 viewers was a big deal. Selling that to a
large sponsor company is difficult. Twitch has made that accessible. Everyone
can watch on their phone or laptop wherever you are in the world. I feel like
that’s the reason esports has got to where it has.”

As for for television? “We just don’t need it” Henry says. “We’re so past
that, why is it the ultimate goal? We’re not restricted by adverts, we’re not
governed or restricted. We do our own thing.”

London calling

As competitive gaming continues to soar in popularity, the changes are
finally starting to take place, with dedicated UK arenas being established by
both Gfinity and ESL. Clearly testing the waters, early events saw CS:GO sharing
space with other titles such as Call of Duty and Super Smash Bros Melee at
Dreamhack London. Since then the success of competitions like the ESL Pro League
Finals have sent a clear signal: the UK has a committed audience for CS, and
they are as passionate as they come.

“The UK having events like this, pulling in an audience without any other
games, I love that,” Lauren says. “It’s a unique thing and it seems to be
getting better and better. CS is a massive thing in this space and it’s
dominating it pretty well. The audience is actually very unique, very different
and I love that about them. You get a different vibe at different events you go
to and I think the CS one has a hell of a lot of personality and it’s awesome to
see it here in London.”

Photo credit: ESL/Helena Kristiansson

“Gaming as a whole in the UK has had this stigma attached to it in the sense
that it’s quite nerdy and geeky,” says Henry. “But now people are starting to
realise that it’s actually quite a cool thing to do, it’s actually quite
exciting. With these kind of events we’re raising awareness slowly but
surely.

“People travel every weekend to see their favourite football teams, and now
we’re having that same thing for their favourite esports players,” he continues.
“ I think that’s really cool. We’re building up personalities and getting
celebrities. It’s all coming together through platforms like Twitch.”

Where are the UK teams?

CS:GO broadcasting is overflowing with British talent. From Duncan “Thorin”
Shields to Alex “machine” Richardson, you’re all but guaranteed to see a UK face
at any large event. Despite this, the UK has been painfully slow to establish
itself in hosting tournaments. It’s hard not to think that this is, in large,
due to the lack of any presence from a local team. While the ESL audience showed
no end of love for the French G2, a home side could draw an entirely different
level of attention. Despite this it has been difficult to draw interest in
sponsor support for a UK side. As a former player and owner of the EZSkins
organisation, this is clearly a topic close to Henry’s heart.

“The problem with the UK CS:GO scene right now is that there are great
players, but there are no great teams,” Henry explains. “You can tell the fans
are hungry for it. They want their hometown heroes. They want their Fnatics,
their NiPs like the Swedes have. I mean you look at teams like Virtus.pro, even
when they’re losing at Katowice they have the whole crowd behind them. That’s
what the UK wants.”

“[Last year] I had my own company and set up a British team to go to events
and we sent them to Dreamhack London,” continues Henry. “That was the first time
a British team had made it to a big event. They took down the Australian Team
Renegades. In London, taking down one of the bigger names for the events, it was
a fairytale story. The problem is, once we finished that event we had nothing
else to play for. We hadn’t been invited to any big events and the team
stagnated and dropped off. That was about a year ago and the scene has changed
so much since then."

The problem with the UK CS:GO scene right now is that there are great
players, but there are no great teams

Valve has since introduced the Minor system in order to encourage and nurture
smaller teams. Accepting only sides which have not previously participated in
Majors, the Minors offer both a $50,000 prize pool and the chance to compete in
the offline Major qualifiers. So with the support finally in place, and
increasing attention being diverted to hosting, is it finally time for a stable
UK side to emerge? On that front, the jury is still out.

“I hope so,” offers Lauren. “I won’t say it’s going to be any time soon if
I’m honest. I think there’s still a long way to go. There are some incredibly
talented players, it’s just that the UK scene has a horrible history of rotating
the same players in and out of lineups. Someone doesn’t get on, or there’s no
support. They don’t want to put in the work without the money being there.
There’s no middle ground for it. I think eventually the younger scene will break
in, they’ll get there and make it, but it’s a long way.”

“When my team was playing we didn’t have [the Minor system],” says Henry. “So
I feel like maybe not 2016, but 2017 we’ll have something, just one team we can
be proud of. They don’t have to be winning events, just to be competitive.”